Fedora CD won't boot

[Trizik 0]

I'm totally new to Linux, but ready to give it a try. My other computer is currently running WinXP but I'm hoping to replace it with Fedora.

 

So, I downloaded all four ISOs of Fedora Core 2, burned their images onto four CDs, and tried booting off Disk 1. However, every time the computer boots, the CD-ROM scans but then proceeds to load WinXP. My boot order is as follows: (1) CD-ROM, (2) floppy, (3) hard drive, (4) network boot. What am I doing wrong?

[Dapper Dan 0]

Did you md5sum check the CDs to make sure they were the correct size after burning? If so, and that checked out, my next guess would be that you maybe didn't burn an image of the ISO's but rather just burned the ISO to disk. If that might be the case, you can browse the first CD from XP. If there is only one file on the CD that ends with .iso, then you will need to re-burn them, only this time making sure you burn the image and not the .iso itself. Which burning program did you use when creating these CDs?

[Trizik 0]

I'm using Magic ISO Maker. I made sure I burned the image. I tried it a few different ways; extracting the ISO to my hard drive, then burning the whole directory (including subs) to a CD-R. I also tried using Magic ISO Maker's built in ISO image burner, which asks for an ISO file and burns the image automatically to a CD.

 

I guess my big question is what the folder tree should look like on my CD. The readme file says to use mnt/cdrom/, but that didn't work for me - and neither did simply using the structure in the ISO.

 

One thing I'm hung up on; Disk 1 has a /images dir that has a boot.iso. Do I need to do anything with that? I simply burned it along with the rest of the files in disk1.iso to a CD. Keep in mind, boot.iso is the only ISO in disk1.iso.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[danleff 0]

I'm looking at this product right now.

 

Don't get hung up on too many details.

 

What it looks like, is that you need to use the Magic cd burner to burn the iso image.

 

Do not extract the image to a hard drive. You want to burn the image, which should make the cd bootable. I noticed that the default burn speed is the fastest for the cdrw drive. You want to burn it at 4X or 8X, no faster.

 

You need to burn the pristine iso images for Fedora to a cd. So, do not extract the iso or try to rebuild it. Once it is downloaded, you burn the image to the cd. Ignore the boot.iso file in the Fedora 1st cd directory, you do not need to do anything with this iso file. It is only there if you need to make a bootable floppy...

 

Also, go into the bios and disable network booting as an option. Then try to boot the 1st fedora cd, which should start the install process.

 

Finally, as Dapper Dan said, you need to make sure that the iso images themselves were good downloads, by checking the md5sum to see if they downloaded correctly and intact. If this is too confusing, try to burn only the 1st cd, wich is the bootable install cd, and see if you get the Fedora flash screen.

[Trizik 0]

Thanks for the response.

 

I did the md5sum checks, all is good.

 

Apparently the Magic CD Burner included with Magic ISO Maker doesn't seem to be working properly. After I burn an image, the visible burn on the CD takes up a very small portion of it (not nearly enough to be 600 megs).

 

Any ISO image burner recommendations?

[Dapper Dan 0]

Nero is good. If you don't have a copy, The trial version is still avaiable for you to check out and see if you want to purchase it.

[danleff 0]

Yes, apparently, if you have the trial version, it will not burn over 300 mb, unless you buy the product with the full features. I just ran into this myself.

 

As Dan said, Nero is very good. I use it all the time.

 

There is also another product called CD Burner XP Pro, if you are using Win XP. It can be found here.

[Trizik 0]

Originally posted by danleff:

Quote:

Yes, apparently, if you have the trial version, it will not burn over 300 mb, unless you buy the product with the full features. I just ran into this myself.

 

As Dan said, Nero is very good. I use it all the time.

 

There is also another product called CD Burner XP Pro, if you are using Win XP. It can be found here.

 

Just what I was looking for.

[timw 0]

I've been trying to load Core2 on a brand new Asus M/B with the Intel 865PE Chipset. I find I have almost the same problem. When I boot from the CD, and hit Enter to start the graphical load, it goes into a loop and starts to load the process with the first two lines of information and then it goes into a re-boot process and if I type in the required linux whatever it is for the command line installation, it does the same loop.

 

I heard that the drivers for the chipset is not on the Core2 CD, any truth to that or any information on where to get something to make this installation work?

 

 

[Trizik 0]

Woohoo! It's working!

 

Thanks guys!

 

But I'm not gone yet. Chances are I'll be back.

[danleff 0]

timw, yes, it seems to be a bug with Fedora and the system board and kernel 2.6 packaged in Fedora.

 

Do you have a sata drive on the system, or ide drive?

 

See the RedHat bug report here.

 

 

[timw 0]

Yes Dan, I have two sata drives onboard. I did talk to a hardware man on Friday who said that Promise has a controller board that has linux drivers that enable the sata drives. I ordered one and should have it installed on Tuesday the 17th. I'll let you know the outcome.

 

Thanks for the reply and the information.

 

Tim

 

[oprogue 0]

I have the same problem, but with IDE drives. Does the Fedora release 3 address this issue? What is the work around?

 

Thanks,

 

op.

[oprogue 0]

Need to add ... I don't have a floopy, I use a usb jump drive instead.

[owain 0]

I had the same problem; would't get fedora off disk 1.

Having burned 2 discs with nero had a look around and lot of people have this problem.

 

The solution that worked for me:-

make sure you finalize the disk otherwise its not an iso image! You only need to do it on disc 1 as the others seam to work OK

[danleff 0]

Yes! Use a cdr. And since you can't use it anyway to add new files, finalize that cd! Burn them at a slow speed 4X or 8X.

Nero usually warns you that you need to finalize the disk, due to the iso file size. Remember, current distro iso files are at the write limit of many cdr disks. Finalizing them allows the data volume to be written completely to the disk.